Brake calipers

What startles me is all the talk about rotors exploding. There are a
number of reasons for rotor failure, most (admittedly not all) being
related to incorrect reassembly after dismantling wheels, disks or
calipers.
There is no doubt that even the experts can get this wrong,in which
case what are the odds against some over-confident back yarder getting
it right?
If an amateur only stuffs around with his/her own gear, fair enough.
Just keep him/her away from my brakes says I.

 

Well, in an S, you had one reasonably good braking occurrence, then,
sometimes, a second, half-hearted one, and after that, nothing.

The 997 Coopers were even worse, and I had one of them.

You very quickly learnt to chuck the thing sideways as the only valid
way of reducing speed.

The last of the Mokes, with 13" wheels and 1275 motors had almost good
brakes.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

But all the mechanical examples above were *professionals* stuffing up!
The lesson from this thread is that
a) brakes fail predictably (and gradually) if abused or poorly
maintained and
b) don't trust bike-shops with your brakes.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:54:03 GMT

One of them wasn't - one of mine. 2 of mine really.

I didn't see a lot of prediction about most of the stories I saw.

Don't trust bad bike shops. The trick is finding good ones...

I've got a list of places I trust, and haven't had my trust abused.
And a few which I wouldn't touch...

If the spannerer works for themselves or in a small shop and has a
good rep, then they are trustworthy as long as not badly overworked.
(Although the worst problem I've had with a bike shop was a small
shop, but it was a dealer in Japanese bikes and they seem to have
smaller margins than eurobike places.)

Very few larger places are people I'd trust. The Yamaha dealer in
Ballina and Lismore an honourable exception, although that was over 10
years ago and things may have changed.

I have no hesitation in trusting Phil's mechanical expertise even
though his training's not as a mechanic except for a couple of
factory courses. And no one who's dealt with his bkes would either.
My two most beloved bikes, the Devil and The Old Girl are tributes
to his expertise, one he rebuilt the motor to a state Gowie called
"the quietest single I've ever heard" and the other he rebuilt from
the ground up and Ted Stolarski called it better than showroom
condition in all respects.

Ain't no doubt he's better at this bike business than I am! So if
it's important work to do, better him than me.

Zebee

 

Me neither. The statement is a dangerous over-simplification based on
a missing premise if you ask me.

It's not always easy, but can be done.
Anyway if a person solicits your business based on the premise that he
is expert at that task, that person has certain legal responsibilities
to you.
Of course there is no water-tight guarantee that you won't get killed
through that person's incompetence, but your survival prospects beat
the hell out of relying on "me mate Ted" who has no such legal
responsibility to perform.
You can of course do it yourself if your ability matches your opinion
of yourself.

[...]

I'm not qualified to comment too much about the bike scene, but I
imagine the situation would be similar to diesel and heavy equipment
fitters, where there are plenty of good tradesmen who came up outside
the normal trade training system. These guys can be very good - with
lack of credentials they need to value their reputation.

 

I drove an 850 van as a company car for a couple of years. Had a
broken radiator hose once, that's when I found out they didn't have a
temp light. Indication of over heating was a sudden slowing down as
the pistons nipped up.

A mate was really into his Mini. Imported a bunch of gear to make his
1310 even faster. The damn thing would keep up with my 500 Yamaha, so
that would have been 1974/5

I find sitting on the fuel tank a little unnerving.

Theo

 

You're unlikely to be trapped in a moke though...

 

And yet you ride a bike, with the fuel tank *literally* between your legs?

;-)

 

I'm quite confident that I'll be separated from the bike, not so
confident in a Moke. I expect that, in a crash, the Moke will wrap
itself around me. OTOH, I have driven my dad's 1926 Model T Ford where
the fuel tank is behind the dash. In modern vehicle terms, the fuel
tank is the firewall.

Theo

 

But covered by the "brakes fail (snip) if abused or poorly maintained"

If you want to try to make some silly point about whether the rider
actually had the brains to "predict" that the abuse/lack-of-maintenance
would result in the failure then that's your prerogative.

 

So add the premise then.
What conclusions did you draw from the experiences detailed in the thread?

 

I've been clear enough I think. If you want to continue dredging
arguments from the bottom of the barrel, that's your prerogative, it's
a free Usenet.
You are welcome to come near my bike any time you want to. Just don't
have a spanner in your hands, that's all

 

Nev, maybe you have to take a tour through English courses as I said that
there was no motorcycle courses available anywhere then, maybe today, or
since about 1975.
I was talking to a qualified motor mechanic today and he told me he tried to
get accreditation as a motorcycle mechanic in 1973 but there was nothing
avaliable at the time, he said he would have had to go back to school for
two years just to be able to sit the exams.
He is a fully qualified car, truck, and aircraft mechanic, but he never got
to be a motorcycle mechanic, even though he worked in Milledges, Stanco and
a couple of others

 

Very true Nev
all that is needed is a bit of nous and you can get through almost every
problem.
As you said, there is very little that you could do wrong as bolts, poads
and whatever else, will only fit in one way
If you need to push it in, or use American Universal Tool # 1, then it is in
the wrong place or the wrong way around

 

Fair enough. You can call me risk averse if you like but you have just
joined Elsie in the list of people I don't want near my gear with a
spanner in their hands. It's the admission of being "unmechanically
minded" that does it for me.
Of course you have been doing it for decades without incident, right?

 

From what I read, I have some confidence that you might be
mechanically competent, ie you have a good understanding of how things
work. Therefore you have an understanding of the consequences of a
stuff-up. This is in stark contrast to the statements by some here
that seem to indicate a parrot-like idea of how to do some things with
little understanding of why and even less inclination to find out.
In other words I would happily let you near my gear with a spanner

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:00:34 +1100

well....

I think there's a bit of a gap between "not mechanically minded" and
"unable to do simple jobs".

THe problem is working out when the job isn't simple. With a small
side order, I admit, of having enough understanding to see how what
you are doing is going to affect things.

I dunno I'm that mechanically minded but I managed to do the valves on
a 4 cyl shim under bucket DOHC bike and not bugger it up. It did take
a certain amount of thinking about what was going on and good
instructions and slow and careful work, (and most of a day) but I did
manage it.

I wouldn't want to do it on someone else's bike though! And these
days I'm a lazy sod and I give the fancy bike to someone else to do
all but oil changes on.

A lot of it is how you learned. If the person who showed you was
careful and taught you good techniques, then I think you can do a lot
of things. If you mess about yourself without help and you aren't
talented you'll break a lot of bikes.

Most professional spannerers I know who were around in that 40-50 year
ago Golden Age reckon that the home maintenance culture was
responsible for a lot of broken bikes and a lot of work for them...

Zebee

 

Sorry Nev, I didn't realise that you were going to read it and you are
incapable of understanding without it being expanded to your satisfaction.
Next time, I will make it better for you.

 

How much are you going to pay me ??

 

Geez, some people!
You get the honour and privilege of working on my gear. What more do
you want?